ANTITHESIS - Dying For Life
May 29, 2001, 23 years ago
(Nightmare)
Two bands come to mind when I hear this explosive dose of aggressive power metal: Iced Earth and Breaker, the latter hailing from the same Cleveland homebase as Antithesis. OK, chuck in Sortilege, Metal Church, Hades, even Perseverance-era Death, for biting, grim metal spirit, because there's a strong retro vibe to this thing, a purity of pulverizing purpose evident in the cutting twin riffery and most definitely the consummate metal pipes of Ty Cook. But there's a cloak of doom over the thing as well, especially in the innovative progressive acoustic passages and heavy, heavy stompers like 'Mad Poet' and 'Politicide', two highlights on a daring, complicated, but gravely metallic and morose album.
